This invention relates to a grid finger assembly attachable to a grid structure for guiding articles delivered to the grid structure into compartments of containers.
Heretofore, it has been well known that grids have been utilized with automatic bottle packaging equipment which are designed to conduct and guide bottles, cans and the like into crates or cartons. Sometimes the cartons or containers have petitions therein which must be properly oriented for receiving the article. Grid fingers are provided for directing the articles being dropped from a supplier of articles through the grid into the particular location within the container.
Heretofore, grid fingers have been constructed of many different types of design. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,385,027, there is disclosed corner mounted flexible grid fingers that are used in bottle loading machines. The grid fingers are secured to elongated side plates or dividers by rivets.
Another example of flexible fingers being used in grid sets of article loading machines is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,325,967 granted to A. J. Wild.
In order to make the grid fingers more readily removable when damaged or when it is desired to change to a different style, a compressible resilient member is provided on a top portion of the flexible finger which nest within a circular opening provided in an elongated divider rail. Such a securing device is disclosed in by earlier U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,167.
A typical article loading machine in which the grid and grid fingers of the subject invention can be used is disclosed in my earlier U.S. Pat. No. 3,788,038 and is incorporated herein by reference. In still another one of my earlier patents, U.S. Pat. No. 5,150,563, I disclosed a grid set for loading square or round containers into boxes.
Some prior art grid sets that used thin flexible spring steel fingers have them mounted on elongated side members as well as cross members. This presents a problem in that when a charge of bottles is dropped, some strike the cross members interfering with the loading operation. In an attempt to overcome the problem with thin flexible spring steel fingers mounted on the elongated dividers as well as the cross dividers, rigid corner mounted fingers were developed such as shown in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,911,647. Even though corner mounted rigid fingers work extremely well, in some applications it is still desirable to utilize the thin spring steel fingers.
Accordingly, it is an important object of the present invention to provide a thin spring steel finger that can be readily mounted and removed from a grid.
Another important object of the present invention is to provide a thin flexible spring steel finger for a grid of a case packing machine which when cooperating with other fingers define a pocket through which articles drop even though all of the spring steel fingers are supported on elongated divider plates.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a simple and efficient guide finger for a grid of an article loading machine.